Author of The Battles of the American Revolution.
[(a) The occupation of Charlestown Heights on the night of June 16,
1775, was of strategic value, however transient, equalizing the
relations of the parties opposed, and projecting its force and fire
into the entire struggle for American Independence. (Pages
290-302.)
(b)The Siege of Boston, which followed, gave to the freshly
organized Continental army that discipline, that instruction in
military engineering, and that contact with a well-trained enemy
which prepared it for immediate operations at New York and in New
Jersey. (Pages 37-44.)
(c) The occupation and defence of New York and Brooklyn, so
promptly made, was also an immediate strategic necessity, fully
warranted by the existing conditions, although alike temporary.
(Pages 34-161.)]
An exhaustless theme may be so outlined that fairly stated data will
suggest the possibilities beyond.
Waterloo is incidentally related to the crowning laurels of Wellington;
but, primarily, to the downfall of Napoleon, while rarely to the assured
growth of genuine popular liberty.
No battle during the American Rebellion of 1861-65 was so really
decisive as was the first battle of Bull's Run. As that Federal failure
enforced the issue which freed four millions of people from slavery, and
had its sequence and culmination, through great struggle, in a
perpetuated Union, so did the battle of Bunker Hill open wide the breach
between Great Britain and the Colonies, and render American Independence
inevitable.
The repulse of Howe at Breed's Hill practically ejected him from Boston,
enforced his halt before Brooklyn, delayed him at White Plains,
explained his hesitation at Bound Brook, near Somerset Court-House, in
1777, as well as his sluggishness after the battle of Brandywine, and
equally induced his inaction at Philadelphia, in 1778.
[Illustration: The Battle of Breeds Hill, on Bunker Hill. Compiled and
Drawn by Col. Carrington.]
Just as a similar resistance by Totlben at Sevastapol during the Crimean
War prolonged that struggle for twelve months, so did the hastily
constructed earthworks on Breed's Hill forewarn the assailants that
every ridge might serve as a fortress, and every sand-hill become a
cover, for a persistent and earnest foe.
Historical research and military criticism suggest few cases where so
much has been realized by the efforts of a few men, in a few hours,
during the shelter of one night, and by the light of one day.
The simple narrative has been the subject of much discussion. Its
details have been shaped and colored, with supreme regard for the
special claims of preferred candidates for distinction, until a plain
consideration of the issue then made, from a purely military point of
view, as introductory to a detail of the battle itself, cannot be barren
of interest to the readers of a Magazine which treats largely of the
local history of Massachusetts.
The city of Boston was girdled by rapidly increasing earthworks. These
were wholly defensive, to resist assault from the British garrison, and
not, at first, as cover for a regular siege approach against the Island
Post. They soon became a direct agency to force the garrison to look to
the sea alone for supplies or retreat.
Open war against Great Britain began with this environment of Boston.
The partially organized militia responded promptly to call.
The vivifying force of the struggle through Concord, Lexington, and West
Cambridge (Arlington now), had so quickened the rapidly augmenting body
of patriots, that they demanded offensive action and grew impatient for
results. Having dropped fear of British troops, as such, they held a
strong purpose to achieve that complete deliverance which their earnest
resistance foreshadowed.
Lexington and Concord were, therefore, the exponents of that daring
which made the occupation and resistance of Breed's Hill possible. The
fancied invincibility of British discipline went down before the rifles
of farmers; but the quickening sentiment, which gave nerve to the arm,
steadiness to the heart, and force to the blow, was one of those
historic expressions of human will and faith, which, under deep sense of
wrong incurred and rights imperilled, overmasters discipline, and has
the method of an inspired madness. The moral force of the energizing
passion became overwhelming and supreme. No troops in the world, under
similar conditions, could have resisted the movement.
The opposing forces did not alike estimate the issue, or the relations
of the parties in interest. The troops sent forth to collect or destroy
arms, rightfully in the hands of their countrymen, and not to engage an
enemy, were under an involuntary restraint, which stripped them of real
fitness to meet armed men, who were already on fire with the conviction
that the representatives of national force were employed to destroy
national life.
The ostensible theory of the Crown was to reconcile the Colonies. The
actual policy, and its physical demonstrations, repelled, and did not
conciliate. Military acts, easily done by the force in hand, were
needlessly done. Military acts which would be wise upon the basis of
anticipated resistance were not done.
Threats and blows toward those not deemed capable of resistance were
freely expended. Operations of war, as against an organized and skilful
enemy, were ignored. But the legacies of English law and the inheritance
of English liberty had vested in the Colonies. Their eradication and
their withdrawal were alike impossible. The time had passed for
compromise or limitation of their enjoyment. The filial relation toward
England was lost when it became that of a slave toward master, to be
asserted by force. This the Americans understood when they environed
Boston. This the British did not understand, until after the battle of
Bunker Hill. The British worked as against a mob of rebels. The
Americans made common cause, "liberty or death," against usurpation and
tyranny.